The South Asian Girl

"You whore!" he was yelling at her and she immediately shrank into a corner, huddling herself, trying to protect herself from his blows. "I am going to kill you! I am going to teach you a lesson!" and he starts kicking her, and she was screaming and...

She gets up. Sage Miller's heart is thumping against her chest, sweating profusely, her breathing ragged. She gets up from her bed and pads into the kitchen, taking a pitcher of water from the fridge and pouring herself a glass of ice water. She sips the water from the glass, trying to calm herself down.

It happened almost a year ago. And even though he is safe behind the bars and wouldn't possibly come out soon, she was still afraid. Sage only goes out of her apartment to work and returns back to her apartment as soon as she is done with her work. Her social life is non existent and she spent most of her time, locked up in her own apartment, refusing to leave the apartment and making sure that the doors and windows are locked.

Sage glances at the wall clock hung on the wall. It was nearly seven thirty on a Thursday night. Taking the glass of water with her, she goes into the bathroom and opens her medicine cabinet. She stares at the pills case lying in the middle of the cabinet along with the medicines and toiletries. If she takes the pills, she wouldn't be having those nightmares. She knows that. But she also knows that she has to be careful with the pills. Her doctor had warned her to not use too much of pills. Sage hasn't used pills for weeks and she couldn't deal with the nightmares anymore.

She grabs the pill case and takes two pills out of the case and puts them into her mouth, taking a quick gulp of water.

She feels a bit relaxed and calm...she thought as she goes back into her bedroom. She walks towards the window where it overlooks the part of the Brooklyn neighborhood where she lives. In the distant, she can hear the sirens wailing, the apartment buildings across from her dotted with lights. The streets are busy as usual. Sage smiles. New York, the city that never sleeps.

She takes the binoculars from her drawer and walks back to the window again. For a while, she has taken up a new hobby--using the binoculars, she has been observing the lives of the people living in the apartment building across from hers. Not that she was stalking or anything--after the incident, she was curious and would like to imagine what the lives of the people are really like. Well, Sage Miller used to have a life--going out with her friends to nightclubs and restaurants and parties and enjoying her life to maximum.

Then she met him and things changed for her.

The apartment building is quiet tall, consisting about ten floors. The building itself is brick layered with balconies in each apartment and sliding doors. A bit fancier than her own apartment. She focuses on the apartment on the third floor. The room is brightly lit and a family of five was sitting by the dinner table, probably having dinner. Sage can imagine the father, probably working in a bank or law firm, recounting about his day at his office and then asking his children how their school had gone. Maybe the children already had their term tests and maybe got good or bad grades from the tests. The mother seems to be listening to the conversation while serving food to the father and the children. Sage can imagine what the dinner table is like--bread rolls with pasta and meatballs and salad with ice cream for desert. Watching the life of the family across from her street made her miss her family more.

She then focuses on another apartment just above the third floor--on the fifth floor. The sliding doors seems to be opened, must be to let the cool summer breeze into the room. She can see a woman about her age, sitting on her sofa, sitting in front of the television. She can see the blares coming from the television. Sage can imagine the woman must have had a long day and must be sitting in front of the television, probably watching a reality show or something, with a glass of wine in her hand.

Then Sage focuses on the apartment on the tenth floor.

She can see a South Asian--she was sure of it--girl in her late twenties waving her arms around frantically. She can also see a man--probably in his early thirties was pointing finger at her and it seems like they were quarreling. Sage chuckled a little. Maybe they are having a lover's quarrel...she thought. But the scene in front of her reminds her of something else--that she was longing to forget about.

She focused on the scene in front of her.

The girl seems to be pleading the man, as if she was begging. She knelt in front of the man, clinging on his leg, as if she was pleading. He kicked her and she scrambled on the floor.

Sage gripped the binoculars tightly.

Then something happened.

The man pinned the girl against the wall and was wounding his hands around her neck. The poor girl is struggling, trying to escape but he was way too strong for her. He was going to kill her....

"No!" Sage screamed dropping her binoculars on the floor. With shaking hands, she grabs her phone from her bedside table. She dials 911.

"Hello, 911, what's your emergency?" the operator asked.

"He is going to kill her!" she screamed on the phone.

"Madam calm down, who is going to kill who?"

"Stop asking questions! You need to immediately come here! He...he was strangling her!"

"Madam, can you give me your address?"

Sage rattled off the address and after the operator assured her that she will send the dispatcher, she drops the phone and then grabs the binoculars and goes back to the window. She focuses the binoculars back on the apartment room on tenth floor. She pulls the binoculars away.

The room is dark. It's as if what Sage has witnessed was just a dream and it seems that no one was living in that room.

***

"She was South Asian--I mean like Hispanic," Sage was explaining to the two detectives who came to visit her.

"Miss Miller, what did she really look like?" Detective Karla Brennan asked impatiently. Her partner, Detective Tyler Wilson gave her a look but smiled sympathetically at Sage.

"She..." Sage was trying to remember what the girl look like. "looked South Asian,"

"You mean Indian?" Tyler asked gently.

"Yes," Sage said glad that at least one of the detectives was on her side. "She was in her late twenties I think. The man, he was white. Probably in his early thirties,"

"Where did you exactly see them?" Karla asked, softening her tone a little.

"That apartment building across from mine...I mean did you go and see? Is she OK? Have you caught him?" Sage asked questions tumbling out of her mouth.

Tyler sighed giving Karla a look before answering Sage's question.

"I am sorry Ms. Miller but there was no one matching that description living in the apartment,"

Sage blinked. "What--no I saw them. They were arguing and he...he kicked her and he was strangling her..." Tears pricked in her eyes and she gingerly wiped them away. "I swear I wasn't making things up! I saw them!"

"We checked and knocked on every door on the tenth floor," Karla replied in a serious tone. "The landlord also said that some of the apartment rooms are empty and no one was living in that apartment,"

Sage stared at Karla. "No...no it can't be! Maybe he is covering up maybe--"

"You imagined the whole thing," Karla finished for her. "I am sorry Ms. Miller but there's nothing we can do." with that Karla leaves the room, beckoning her partner to follow.

Tyler sighed, getting up. He gives his card to Sage.

"If you have any questions...or need help, you can call me," Tyler replied. "I know about your story Sage...that you suffered abuse from your ex-boyfriend and you are taking pills..."

"And you think I dreamed and imagined about it? For heaven's sake, I am not South Asian! I am a White woman. And I know what I saw," Sage said determinedly.

Tyler nods and then leaves the apartment.

Sage remained seated on the sofa. The more she thinks about it, the more she thinks, maybe the detectives were right. Sometimes, the pills put a hallucinating effect on her. Maybe she imagined her previous life at the hand of her ex-boyfriend.

She goes into the room and the looks out of the window, towards the apartment building. She crosses her arms on her chest, looking out, watching at the apartment room on the tenth floor.

She then gasped, putting her hand on her mouth.

The girl was there, in the room, staring at her. Sage can clearly see her now--a South Asian girl with shoulder length dark hair and tanned complexion, wearing a floral printed dress. The girl was looking straight at Sage, as if she can feel that Sage was looking at her.

"Wait!" Sage said, opening her window.

And then after she opened the window, the girl had disappeared. And Sage had realized that the detectives were right. The room where the girl was in looked empty with no furniture--as if no one has lived in that room for months.